Behind the masks
by Nemini
Summary: Exploration of different ANBU characters and what put them down this path. / A collection of short stories and profiles of shinobi who walk in the shadows. Original character heavy.
1. Rat & Fox & Owl

AN: This isn't a normal story but more of a place for me to write character profiles from my very old and dropped story about ANBU. These are stories of lost souls and shadows in the dark.

* * *

His name was **Rat**. But that wasn't always his name.

Once upon a time, he held the name Hayashi Moronobu. He was one of the lucky civilians who made it through the Academy, who didn't get stuck in the genin corps. Maybe it was because his genin team was full of clan kids - one Inuzuka, one Uchiha - and even their jounin sensei was someone from a renowned family, a Hyuuga with the off branch seal on his head, worn proudly.

He hated his team with passion, for he always felt like he stood at the border, just outside of the prowess his teammates have shown. He let that rage motivate him and with a surprise, no one seemed to notice. He had to admit, he liked the Inuzuka a bit (pack behaviour, nin-dog who behaved like a puppy, honest words of encouragement), much much more than the Uchiha. (condensing looks over his shoulder, looks of pity, words of discouragement, of superiority) Somehow their team doesn't break apart in the first year, nor in the second.

Their teacher nominates them for the Chuunin exams. There are high expectations, even higher bets, their team seems to be in the spotlight all the time. The Inuzuka defeating the favourite from Suna in the first round, the Uchiha unlocking his Sharingan in second, all three of them making it to the final tournament. Hayashi is scared because he feels like he got carried by his teammates because he is getting told by the Uchiha that's exactly what happened. (it's a wonder no one noticed the hate that stood at the centre of their team) Moronobu gets eliminated in the first fight, after standing in the battle circle for half an hour, battling one genjutsu after another, barely making any dent in his opponent skin, instead received several scars in his soul.

The Chuunin exams change them all because somehow it's only Hayashi who gets promoted. The Hokage never gives an explanation of why you weren't promoted, only if you were. Their team falls apart, because of the disbelief from the clan ninjas, because of the blame they seem to throw at their third member, as if it was somehow his fault they won their fights but still didn't get the flak jacket.

 _Congratulations, Moronobu-kun, for the chuunin title, that is being given for keeping your head calm at all times, for showing prowess in withstanding genjutsu even Yamanaka would be proud of. For showing that ninja isn't only made from his skill in battle, but also in knowledge when to retreat to lower the casualties._ That was the speech the Sandaime has given him when getting his promotion. Hayashi knew at that moment, that his team-mates would never understand, for they always focused on themselves (even the Inuzuka).

Their team falls apart very quickly after that. Different rank is the last excuse that they all needed and even though there are traces of sorrow in the Inuzuka eyes, there is nothing but pure dismissal in the Uchiha's and Hyuugas'. Moronobu feels free for the first time in the last two years. He is free to join with different ninjas for missions, free to train on his own pace, free from doujutsu that seem to follow his every move. He starts coming home to his parents with smile on his face, with stories from work that he is proud of telling. Once he dares himself to go to the Inuzuka compound, to talk to his former teammate, to learn about news about his former acquaintances. He regrets it immediately because he is only greeted by blame, the teenager poisoned by words of others.

His skillset is fairly simple, for he never dabbled into flashy jutsu, instead trying to make the most from simplest jutsu. Substitution was always thought to be the simplest and most useless ninjutsu there is. Hayashi begs to differ, as he substitutes himself with the person he is meant to protect, surprising the assassin.

He always hated the clan ninja, especially the Uchiha, but he never wanted them dead. There might have ever been some kind of respect he held for few of those from clans. The Cat, for how he never seemed to look down upon his subordinates, even though he was so much more better than them, even though he was a child genius and Captain. The Racoon, for his prowess with the sword, because he was the one who taught him, with patience and small words. Even his genin teammate, who he hasn't seen in so long, because there was no opportunity, no need, no wish to see him. And now he will never get a chance.

His name was Rat and while he has never seen Cat murder everyone in his clan except his brother, he hated him with passion and he swore to never become someone like that.

x

His name was **Fox** and he wasn't always male.

His (hers) name was Yuki, because she was born in the winter, when the snow covered Konoha in it's crispy texture. Her name was chosen to her by the Hokage, because her widowed mother (her father no longer walked the world, his life lost while defending the village - at least that's what she was told) left her behind, alone to experience the life. It wasn't her fault her mother took one look at her the moment she was born and started screaming, of how this isn't her child. It sometimes happens, the nurses were whispering, that a mother refuses the maternal bond, lost in the sorrow of their partner.

And that's how Yuki was born, without last name, without a clan or family to back her up, instead becoming a child of the village. There were a lot of children like her, without parents since birth, since their early years, forced to become wards of the Hokage. Even though this village prided itself of how it takes care of it's orphans, it didn't change how they had more thorny path in front of them. There wasn't much how to untagle themselves from it.

Become a ninja, or go to the streets. That was the harsh truth and Yuki knew it. Orphans were always allowed to go to the Academy, as far as they passed the preliminary health check. Some people liked to think of it as mercy, as giving them a way of life, but some knew better. A cheap workforce that won't stain the streets. Yuki knew she had to be ready for both of these options. The days were spent attending the Academy, studying, training. The nights were spent pickpocketing, socializing, learning who to go if you wanted something _very_ specific done.

She worked hard and suddenly she was twelve and hitai-ate on her forehead and suddenly it was not.

Her team failed. Their jounin sensei deemed them incompatible (no teamwork, no communication, no traces of even trying). He didn't even look sad when he told them the verdict, when he told them they aren't ready. She wanted to scream at him, at everyone, of how this isn't fair, of how other people shouldn't influence your future. She knew that was naive.

They were given two options - return back to Academy for another half year or go to genin corps, become cannon fodder, become an almost untrained ninja. She chooses the second option, because it doesn't need to be always the end of the road, and she knows going back to her nightlife is going to be much harder after she became an official ninja.

The next few years pass in a blur of patrol missions, of hunting cats, of taking care of Konoha, of transporting not that valuable scrolls. She trains on the side, by herself, in the evenings, in the mornings, when she has time. The patrols are the most eventful out of all these missions because she gets to find friends there. Valuable friends that are stuck at the path with no end like her. Somehow those stray souls flock to her, to her motivation, to her drive and they start having regular meetings where they share their small strengths. They make two three-person teams and request to get nominated to Chuunin exams, a feat normally only undergone by those in proper genin teams with a jounin sensei. It's a year when the exams are held in Konoha, which is very very lucky for them, because it means there are more teams allowed in. After all, only the best from the best are meant to go to the foreign exams.

Those six underdogs don't take the exams by a storm, definitely not, but they still prove themselves and while most of them don't get promoted, it still means they are noticed and a bit more closer to get out of the infinite loop that is genin corps. Yuki along with Hoshi, another orphan, gets promoted to chuunin for their leadership skills, quick thinking and something called a will of fire.

Their group still meets regularly, even if they are not all genins anymore. Someone notices, someone follows them around, unseen by all of them until - until Yuki forces the genjutsu around the ninja away, exposing him. She only gets a flash of mask until he shunshins away. Why are they being watched by ANBU, she wonders?

It never crosses her mind it wasn't all of them they were watching, observing, but just her. That someone noticed the hidden potential. That someone noticed the way she had with words. The never knew of the contacts she gained at the side, of the way she greets the okasan of the Konoha okiya by first name, and it all comes as a very pleasant surprise when they give her the option to join. _You seem to already know the way of the night, why not becoming a full shadow._

They say foxes are sly and tricksters. They say they will stray you away from your path. Fox liked to hide behind henges, behind chakra-less camouflage so good, his own captain wouldn't be able to recognize him. He, she preferred to be entirely different person each day, able to slip into another mindset almost instantly. It's no wonder it doesn't take long for him to get pulled to the infiltration squad, to get the hardest missions, never known, forever forgotten in perfect anonymity.

x

Her name was **Owl** and she was born to a Wolf and Butterfly.

She was born weak, weaker than she should be, considering the parentage, considering of how good ninjas her parents were. Her early birth put a strain on her mother, forcing her to a desk job, no longer able to serve in the active corps. She never knew it, never realised it, never seen it, but her father blamed her daughter for it, for taking the seemingly only pleasure her mother had - the pleasure of hunt, of a swordfight, of stalking the prey.

It took Owl (Yoshido, that was the name they gave her) several years to realise of how her father liked to manipulate people, of how he liked to stay in power. The ANBU Captain, Commander in several years, was sly and should have been called Fox instead, not a Wolf who belonged to a pack. The doctors told the Katsurou's (for that was their family name) that their daughter will never be a ninja, that her chakra pathways aren't working properly, of how she might not even survive the first year.

But Yoshido was born as a fighter, to a family of fighters, to a caring mother who only wanted the best for her, to a father who wanted to see someone as successful as himself. Where Wolf put a strain on future Owl, forcing her to train, to push her limits, to try to expand her chakra network, there was also Butterfly who explained chakra control, who helped poor future Owl to refine herself, how to hold the sword and senbon.

The passion for poisons came from neither of them.

As a suprise to everyone, Yoshido graduated early, just when she was only nine years old, three years before the normal age, two years before they enforced the age limit. She never got a proper team, instead was a chosen as a lone apprentice to a special jounin who took a liking to her. Those were rare, but there were exceptions, exceptions made for talent, for geniuses, for special cases. Anko Mitarashi was ANBU through and through, but she was put on passive duty after an injury, and she met her squad captain's daughter by pure accident. It was like a match made in heaven. The shy girl had nothing of the impulsiveness of the hebi ninja, but something between them just sparked.

It took two years for her to be recommended to ANBU, for her to undergo the entrance test, the physical and most of all, mental evaluation. There would be forever written in her file of how she is unable to make friendships, of how she works better alone, of how she seems to feel no remorse. They almost throw her out into the wild without the mask again, when Itachi Uchiha murders his clan, putting a black veil over trust in genius children. Instead she gets stationed in Land of Rivers, told to serve as a spy there, to hide there, to stay there for months, to collect information. She is recalled back a year later, the network she left behind practically able to function on it's own, coming to Konoha as entirely different person.

She is thirteen and presented with an offer.

Her name was Owl and she held the owl summoning contract and the future of the nukenin in her hands, because she was a hunter, who had no problem to stick her fellons deep inside her prey.


	2. Jackal & Deer & Racoon

His name was **Jackal** and he held many names in the past.

He was born as Shunko, to a happy family of ninja mother and civilian father, sharing the household with an older sibling. He heard the stories of ninjas from her sister, idolizing them, wanting to be like them one day. He loved playing outside, pretending to be a ninja.

Then he got stolen in pure daylight under the nose of his father at the age of six just to get a name made out of numbers (6-347), because that's how it was in Root, you don't deserve a name until you prove your worth to the village, to Danzo, to your superiors. (no one ever held any names here, but you never had time to wonder) He was forced to learn how to kill, how not to feel, how to conduct interrogations, how to torture. There were days when he didn't get any sleep at all when they forced them to train until they passed out. His childhood dream was long ago forgotten.

Some days they just locked them in a room with no light, no food, no water and no sound. He was forced to break himself apart, just so he could belong among other lost souls.

Somewhere deep inside he hated everything he did, he was forced to, but that thought couldn't cross his mind at all, because then that Yamanaka ANBU would know, and that would mean showing weakness. You can't show weakness in Root. You can't allow yourself to show anything that makes you different.

He gets sent at his first mission at the age of eight. The only difference that his appearance bears to a regular ANBU is that he looks way too young to be able to take someone's life in cold blood. In the end, he holds the tanto in his sweaty shakings hands, forcing himself to that last decision that would be his breaking point. To kill now or to be killed (or worse, you never know in Root) later. He chooses the first option.

Then life becomes a blur. He has no life outside of the base and missions, of course. Forced to make a kill one day, sent to follow a regular shinobi the other, ordered to sneak into the Nara compound to steal a scroll, instructed to listen on conversations. All the masked faces he started to associate with the word comrade, friend, passing around him, blending into unknown animals, monsters in his dreams. Being a Root means having your lifespan shortened to mere months. That's why Danzo likes picking them young because then weeding out the talent makes it so much more worthwhile.

6-347 survives for the next ten years. He is barely a shell of a human, but a shell that is comfortable with who he is. Officially he is a dead man, only remembered by his lost family, which brings flowers to his grave every year on the day he got kidnapped. 6-347 barely remembers that a boy named Shunko even existed.

Then everything falls apart when Danzo's plot, his illegal actions are found out. Suddenly there are dozens of shinobi with no name, with no personality, with their mind so blank, they might have been machines. Some of them are locked out, forever, even the Yamanaka unable to tell if they will be ever ready to be integrated back into normal life.

Some of them are deemed stable enough to be sent to normal ANBU, given to squads of ninja who might have committed same things like these lost souls, but entirely on their own volition, not entirely erasing their identity. They are ordered to watch these former Root, hoping for them to gain some humanity again. They start with names.

There is no longer the word for death in his name, instead, he is named after hopefull tomorrows. It takes him way too long to even start considering the name Akemi as his own because there is already a new mask on his face and the name Jackal that comes with it.

x

Her name was **Deer** and she was not a Nara, even if her new teammates often assumed, based on her mask. She liked it that way.

What would be the purpose of wearing it then? An ANBU was meant to be anonymous, a kunai in the night, an extended will of the Hokage. ANBU wasn't a person anymore, it was an idea, a thought, a purpose, and those had no personality, no tells.

She had dark hair like a Nara, but she was a Yamanaka by blood, by jutsu. She could get inside your mind, take it apart, force you to relieve your worst memory. She was approached with the offer to join the ANBU because of the speed she could execute her family jutsu, only needing a small amount of time to get into someone's mind. She wasn't one of those that were regularly sent into the field, instead being kept to the base of their operations, staying near the cells that hosted the occasional spy that managed to make it past the Konoha's chakra defensive barrier. The enemy shinobi weren't her only job though.

All the ANBU rookies feared her because it was her who conducted the mental examination at the start of their training, who learned their worst secrets, their worst fears. She took no pride in doing this, in knowing what could break her teammates, her partners in crime apart. She was all smiles, supportive words instead because she knew that these ninjas deserved any kind of positive encouragement because she knew what they had to face, what they bottled inside them because she did the same.

There was nothing more bonding than living the horrors of ANBU together. Since the moment you swore utter loyalty to your Hokage first, to your village second, since the moment you agreed to live in the shadows, to become the edge of a sword.

ANBU had the biggest mortality rate in the first year. Then you could be considered a hardened senior. Your age didn't matter, all that everyone cared about was the experience.

Deer was one of the few who had a family to come to every day, that had a child to protect, a future shinobi for the village. There was her husband waiting home for her every night, his days kept busy by working in the Yamanaka flower shop and raising the future hope of the village. He knew his wife could enter the mind of anyone she chooses, to bring them to her knees, but he had absolutely no idea of what the Hokage actually employed her for.

x

His name was **Racoon** and he was an off branch Hyuuga.

He knew he was lucky to be born into this world like he did, into an ancient shinobi family, with secret jutsu, with doujutsu, with traditions. It was those that made him loathe his own family, the invisible wall that stood between the branches, the one that was marking him the servant, the seal that branded him, that represented the invisible hand of death hovering behind his back.

He hated the system, the rules his clan abided to, the way they tried to clip his wings. A proper Hyuuga only practices taijutsu, a proper Hyuuga doesn't go into the battle without relying on his eyes. A proper Hyuuga definitely never wields a sword, never forces the power of lightning through the blade. He was never expecting to find solace in ANBU, where no one cared what clan you were from, just that you are completely loyal. Racoon could be loyal, as far as there was a good reason to. Yondaime Hokage was one of the people who were worthy of his loyalty. The summon to the just appointed Hokage's office came like a bolt from the blue and with it the surprising offer to join the ANBU. Namikaze smiling behind his desk, giving him an escape route from the bad stares of his clan, from the hindering that they were making on the Hyuuga's career.

"We need someone with your talent in the sword.", was what the Yondaime had said. "It's a waste on your clan, waste to lock it behind a seal." He has seen the flash of hate in Hokage's blue eyes and in that moment he knew that this is his Kage, a man he would gladly serve until death separated him from this world. ANBU was a path he never even considered, but it would definitely offer a way of an escape.

Escape from the way the clan elders restricted the mission the jounin had access to, the way he got declined a place at clan meetings, the way his sword often kept disappearing from the compound, the way it got to the point of him unable to earn enough money for his own life. In ANBU he was not a Hyuuga anymore, he was someone who was trusted for his prowess in swordsmanship, someone who could defeat his enemy with one swift strike. Racoon was a shinobi that liked to share his knowledge with others, that wanted to make sure his comrades would have a higher chance of survival in the field, of finishing their missions.

Shinobi age fast and well, especially when serving the Hokage daily. No one in the ANBU knew Racoon age, but everyone knew who he was. He was the shinobi that took care of initiates that struggled with mastering the sword of their choice, the one that showed them first steps in using something else than their body, chakra and kunai in battle.

Racoon only had one rule on the training grounds. If you want to have unsupervised match you aren't allowed to use a sword without his allowance. It took him many years to realise how brusque were the initiates with their swordsmanship, how they often not only caused injuries to their opponents but also to themselves.

People were afraid of Racoon, but that was just a hidden respect.

x

The ANBU headquarters are a maze. Maze of hallways, hidden passageways, lost souls, traps, sleeping quarters, storage rooms, restless protectors. Some days you might not meet anyone on your walk from your commanding officer room to your own, some days you feel like you are the only ANBU in the underground. Some days it feels way too overpopulated.

You meet Snake in the South sector, who is being shadowed by her apprentice, that almost stumbles into you because you are soft on your feet and the kid still isn't used to recognize the tells of a person who lives in the shadows.

You meet Fox sitting in the infirmary, clutching his bloody arm, the droplets staining the white sheet, taking care of the injury himself, not allowing anyone close to him, still running on the mission high, mad gaze behind his mask.

You meet Raccoon sitting in the corner of the training grounds, observing two rookies locked in a duel, his calculating gaze following their every movement, his soft voice pointing out their mistakes.

You meet Owl outside of her room, carrying strange vials in her hands with a care, like holding an infant. You remind yourself to not pass her room again in the following days, afraid of the fumes of the poisons she brews.

ANBU isn't a family, nor it's not only just an occupation that binds you. It's something more, the oath every one made after the initiation (Hokage first, village second, yourself third), the bad dreams that follow you at night, the blood at your hands. Being an ANBU doesn't mean hiding nor holding the feelings in. It means being in complete control, comfortable with who you had to become to serve your kin, your home, your leader.


	3. The hunts of Owl

Adventures of Owl, the youngest hunter-nin of Konohagakure no Sato. Tales of assassinations and infiltration and making strange friends in strange places.

* * *

She holds the decorative fan close to her face, her head turned upwards, nose held high. They don't recognize her, but they also don't realise that, because they are scared to look at her. The nobles hold a high hand over there, and if one of them decides to walk among the mere peasants, they shall not question it, for they might be held at their mercy if they somehow anger them. After all, its the people with money and wealth who rule there and who might decide you don't deserve your job and income anymore.

There is a metal strap in her hair, holding the knitted bun close to her head. It glimmers in the sunlight, giving the illusion of being made from silver. There are pearls in her ears, over her neck and on her sleeves. They give the illusion of wealth.

The common folk is afraid, and they step back, but they don't notice who she is. She walks in the daylight and no one notices, that she holds no position there. If someone asked them if she was there, they would be too scared to answer.

They don't know it's not money that clincks in her handbag, that her perfume stinks of poisonous flowers, that she isn't there to pursuit the male heir to the most prominent merchant family. No, he is the one who had sent the request through one of her contacts in Land of Rivers, contracted her to deal with their rising competition. However Konoha ops for healthy competition in their allied merchants, some just had to draw to the short stick, so others would become indebted to the village.

The merchant hasn't realised it yet, but Konoha holds dirt onto him now, and in extension, owns him. You simply don't order the death of someone without future consequences.

Next day there are news about the Izuka family head sending requests for the best doctors in the area, for his daughter, their heir, has fallen sick. They all bring the same message to him - that her lungs are on the verge of collapse and there is no way for them to save her. That the moment she started to cough out blood, she was already dead. The family never realises in all the tragedy that their chequebooks were altered, so they won't notice some of their money missing. After all, it was their daughter who was taking care of this all.

The stolen coins are taken as an additional payment and if they were made to purchase some of the more poisonous substances on the black market, no one has to know.

Only the birds from the surrounding forest see a dark shadow leaving the town, an owl mask barely recognizable on the blur leaving the place of crime.

x

She has a hunched back and torn clothes smelling of acid. She holds her hand out and begs for money, just another orphan on the street. There is dirt in her hair, that frames her bony face. No one bats an eye when two thugs steal her from the daylight and drag her to their master. She is just one of the many, and it is of no care to them what happens to this another piece of flesh.

The henge is perfect and doesn't falter, when she cries in front of the gang lord as he drags his hand over her body and deems her good enough for his little lovely pleasure workers. She is just the right age before reaching adulthood, has only one missing tooth and the smell and dirt is something that can be gotten rid of. She is given a bath, clean clothes and ushered to the room that helds other like her.

When she makes it out of her new master's bedroom that night, she tells the guards he doesn't want to be disturbed. They don't know she is new, for they know nothing, and held her words no questions. They don't know they are guarding a room hosting a corpse. A corpse of a man who thought he had a village under his thumb, using his prowess in genjutsu to influence the lower population, hoping to hide his status as missing-nin behind the greed of money of dark deals in shady alleys.

x

There is a smell of blood in the air and her owls are arguing behind her, close enough to start ripping their own feathers out. She tells them to calm down, but they do not listen and as she follows their yellow glistening gaze, that very much borders on feral, she disperses them from this word without their agreement.

There is a smell of blood in the air and the village in front of her is reeking with it even more. There is something pulling her closer, a need to reconnaissance, a primal instinct that there is prey in there.

Rat is sitting next to Owl in the bush, observing the clearing in front of them. The smell of freshly cooked meat fills his sensitive nose and his stomach growls, for he hasn't had anything else but a ration bar all day.

They are on the edge of Fire country and they were ordered to deal with the travelling camp that seems to have brought new religion into the land. From what intel they received, it's not as dangerous as Jashinism, but borders on the same danger. There were news of disappearing children along the path this group travelled, and there is not a trace of them to be seen in the camp at all.

The smell of meat fills his sensitive nose and he wants to empty his stomach right there, because he is disgusted with himself for getting hungry at all, because he knows that the meat he smells is human one.

x

The owl mask lies broken on the ground, it's white shards stark against the dirt, against the blood that was spilled. The moment it falls down from her face, it's like everything stopped. Her former sensei's eyes widen in horror, his face freezing in the emotion of disbelief. The impact of the surprising earth jutsu that broke apart the illusion of anonymity gives Yoshido a moment to collect her bearings and _run_.

There is no time to concentrate, to hide from plain sights, just to run, only to focus a bit of the chakra that was left into her legs and run towards her village like a coward. She feels like one, afraid that her former sensei would demand answers, more afraid of words than death.

He doesn't follow, still staring at the remnants of an animal mask, the body of the dead man he was ordered by his own village to protect giving him the only company.


End file.
